Does Bennett have a real shot to make this US team? I'm looking at some of the names...Wheeler, Abdelkader, Okposo, Bjugstad, Pavelski...not extremely impressive. If I was to list my best 12 guys, I actually think he would be borderline...a reserve at worst.

DontToewsMeBro wrote:Does Bennett have a real shot to make this US team? I'm looking at some of the names...Wheeler, Abdelkader, Okposo, Bjugstad, Pavelski...not extremely impressive. If I was to list my best 12 guys, I actually think he would be borderline...a reserve at worst.

Also, I had no idea Galchenyuk was American haha.

Pavelski isn't impressive? Wow. What games do you watch?

Heck, even Wheeler scores 17-19 goals a year, and Okposo has scored 24 before, and looked like a complete beast in the playoffs last year. Maybe not as impressive as Pavelski, but not horrible.

DontToewsMeBro wrote:Does Bennett have a real shot to make this US team? I'm looking at some of the names...Wheeler, Abdelkader, Okposo, Bjugstad, Pavelski...not extremely impressive. If I was to list my best 12 guys, I actually think he would be borderline...a reserve at worst.

Also, I had no idea Galchenyuk was American haha.

Pavelski isn't impressive? Wow. What games do you watch?

Heck, even Wheeler scores 17-19 goals a year, and Okposo has scored 24 before, and looked like a complete beast in the playoffs last year. Maybe not as impressive as Pavelski, but not horrible.

Wheeler? Please. JP is good--didn't think he was all that impressive last year, but to each his own. I'm not saying I don't think he'll make it, considering he's a known commodity and a consistent 60 pt. player...or maybe I was just that impressed by BB...

I don't think Bennett makes the US team, but if guys like Galchenyuk are being called into this larger camp, Bennett isn't extremely out of place. I remember projecting his stats if he had played a full season, and if he had played 48 games, he wouldn't have been too far off the pace of other forward Calder contenders.

As for Fleury, I don't think I would have invited him to camp either, but it's hard to see the guys they did bring in as being vastly superior options to Fleury. I view Luongo and Price as being in more or less the same category as Fleury--very talented, plenty of stretches of good to great play, but with track records of pretty bad meltdowns in high pressure situations. Mike Smith was a back-up in Dallas, a below-average starter on a Tampa team with bad defense, a good starter on a defensively-oriented Coyotes team, and really has no playoff track record. Holtby seems to be the type to rise to the occasion in the playoffs, but is inexperienced. If I had to pick who to start for Canada, I'd go with Crawford. He's at least proven he won't kill a team possessing superior talent in high-stakes games, which is basically all Canada needs, but is also a pretty low bar.

The cost of injuring those guys would be astronomical. As Poile said, that money will be better spent getting more kids into the game. Besides, these guys are (mostly) pros. I don't think not getting on the ice for a week with each other during this camp is going to adversely affect anything.

Yeah, i know its not practical to have an on ice camp, but I would have liked to see all those guys together. It also makes me wonder what kind of system HCDB is going to use if the Pens' one is so complicated (according to press) with no on-ice practice before Sochi.

While I think Letang has a good chance of making the team, he's certainly NOT 100%.

I don't know why some of you are so hard on Letang. He is the most skilled and productive D in the league at the moment and I would guess he will be the #1 D asked to join the team. Whatever whipping boy stuff is said about him here sometimes, any team would take him with open arms and cover his ass with kisses.

Sid is in and I also think Neal has like a 90% chance to be in as well. Kunitz, unlikely.

I think Kunitz will be a sleeper but will make it. He can play a nasty grinder shutdown game if he needed to. Edgy and physical and could also be put on the top line since he as so much chemistry with Sid.

Neal unless his game falls off the edge of the earth should make it on the squad.

it would be funny if letang didn't make it. if he played 5 more games this year (even 5 crappy game), he wins the norris. i don't know if him not making the team would be a bigger indictment of olympic hockey or NHL awards

no name wrote:I think Kunitz will be a sleeper but will make it. He can play a nasty grinder shutdown game if he needed to. Edgy and physical and could also be put on the top line since he as so much chemistry with Sid.

Neal unless his game falls off the edge of the earth should make it on the squad.